With so many at-home cookie-cutter workout routines out there, I figured it would be a great idea to discuss one of the best: P90X. After all, P90X is pretty cheap compared to paying a gym membership and hiring a personal trainer.

Will P90X turn you into a bodybuilder, a powerlifter, an Olympic gymnast, a marathon runner, or a sport-specific athlete? Oh, hell no!

Could P90X possibly get you in the best shape of your life with a minimal initial investment? Could P90X strengthen your body, improve your cardiovascular fitness, help heal nagging injuries, and dial in your 6-pack abs for summer? Oh, hell yes!

What is P90X?

You may already of heard of P90X (other names: Power 90X, X90 Workout, and PX90) either by way of TV and radio commercials or word of mouth. And you may be intrigued by the numerous reports of success enjoyed by people who have shed unwanted pounds, and by the images of people who have used the P90X program to work their way to a toned and attractive physique.

The collection of articles I will be presenting delves into the potential of the P90X program and whatit has to offer you as an individual. I consider it my job to provide sufficient information in this series to answer any and all questions you might have about P90X.

90 Days To Greater Fitness

The secret to the success of P90X is alluded to in its very name. The program is designed to be used for 90 days, or just about 3 months. (P90X stands for “Power 90 Extreme”)

A majority of the diets and gadgets you see advertised on TV are of limited value because they do not deal with the condition of your whole body. These often poorly-designed devices and supplements target your abdominal muscles, for instance, or your glutes, or your arms (like the “Shake Weight” program). None of these weight control products hawked in the commercial media nowadays is designed to address whole-body health, which is by far the best way to treat your weight and muscle tone issues.

Programs like Ab Circle Pro and the Shake Weight love to use advertising models who are “ripped” and attractive, but just how can such a program, designed to address your abdominal muscles, give you the beautifully developed arms that you see in their commercials?

Face it, you will not attain the body beautiful doing this exercise or that for just “10 minutes a day!” That’s just not realistic.

So what is it about P90X that sets it apart from these limited-scope weight-loss regimens? Simple.

It is a comprehensive program which approaches losing weight from more than just one direction. P90X presents you with a wide variety of exercises including at least one for each distinct area of your body. You “mix and match” exercises from the “menu” to create your daily routines, and over the 3 month period, you steadily increase the difficulty level of your workout from week to week.

In addition, P90X guides you in developing a personal diet plan for the program period so that you know exactly what weight reducing meals you will be preparing from beginning to end.

Changing Your Eating and Exercising Habits

The plain truth is that habits take a long time to break. It is the main reason that all the diet supplements and gimmicks make so much money for their sellers. People buy them, follow the directions for a week, and then go back to what they were doing before. That is, until they see the infomercial for some other “quick” weight loss scheme.

P90X asks that you do their program for 90 days, and, if you can maintain your commitment, you will make new habits and change how you think about yourself, and this new awareness will stay with you always. You will understand as you never have before just how and why the human body accumulates fat and muscle mass and tone dissipate over time, knowledge that most people today do not have.

The Hows and Whys of P90X’s Effectiveness

As time goes on, an increasing number of Americans, and, in fact, citizens of the world at large, is becoming overweight. Medical research organizations predict that by 2020, as much as 45% of the American population will be obese. Not “overweight”, but obese; which means that you have exceeded what’s typically described as overweight, such that it is now impacting your health in a negative way, or will eventually if you do not correct the problem. Obesity can increase the likelihood of your developing diabetes or heart disease, and can make for an uncomfortable and dissatisfying life experience. Unless you are lucky enough to be the exception, sooner or later, you are going to suffer for being obese.

The basic problem with the vigorously marketed weight reduction and exercise regimens sold today is the lack of a comprehensive approach. Typically, they will give the buyer either a diet plan, or an exercise plan, but never both. The fact is, you really need a combination of dietary and physical activity regimens, and you need to have the proper motivation and encouragement in order to follow both well enough to see results; results that include not only a healthy body but a firm, muscled, and attractive one as well.

There is no one that cannot lose weight with the help of the P90X System if, once they start it, they stay the course. Let’s take a closer look at the P90X’s two-pronged approach.

The P90X Exercise Program

Exercise is fundamental to reducing body weight and changing the general appearance of your body. True, you can get results eventually by just dieting, but if you exercise too, you will find the weight comes off more quickly, and not only will you increasingly want to move your body, you may reach a point where you feel more like Superman than Spongebob Squarepants.

When your P90X program arrives, most of what you will unpack will be the workout DVDs. The dozen DVDs that come with the P90X program illustrate exercises with the specific body parts that are targeted by each exercise. The presentations also describe different levels of difficulty for each exercise, so that as time passes and your body gets leaner and stronger, you will be able to maintain a level of challenge rather than “plateauing out.” As the program progresses, it will begin to have you combine exercises from each DVD to produce a workout that is comprehensive, vigorous, and effective.

P90X workouts can, and will, really test your stamina. If P90X represents your first experience with proper exercise, you are allowed to work up to the harder exercises by first following the classic exercise set. But you have the option at any time to step up your workouts, and we wouldn’t kid you, the more advanced exercises are no piece of cake, even for someone already in great shape.

There is one thing you can count on: the P90X workouts, when faithfully executed, work. These are not the wimpy or “no sweat” routines that you see in the advertisements for other programs. We can promise that P90X will burn calories and augment musculature because years have gone into the design and fine-tuning of these routines. If you can find and stay dedicated to a routine that is effective for you, there is simply no doubt that you will lose weight.

The P90X Diet Program

If you do not change your eating habits for the better, you will not be able to build the wonderful body that you desire. Even if you make yourself do the most challenging exercises you can think of, if you continue to eat foods loaded with fats and empty calories, you are not going to get to the body weight you really want (the exception to this rule, of course, are those few fortunate individuals with hyper-metabolism).

P90X’s diet program is easily understood and, while nutritionally complete, is not complicated in concept. The details of the diet plan change from month to month, and by the end of the last month, the way you eat will have changed considerably–for the better.

Over the first month, you will increase your protein intake and decrease your carbohydrate consumption thus limiting calories. The plan will change in the next thirty days to allowing you additional calories as it balances your protein and carbohydrate proportions. During the last 30 days, you will be able to eat more carbohydrates so that you will have sufficient energy to persist with the more challenging P90X exercise routines in that final month.

Try P90X today and you will see how great a workout you can get from a little DVD.

5 Responses to “What is the P90X Home Workout System?”

hey Steve, I’ve seen a lot of commercials for P90X and I think it’s a great workout regimen for anyone. another one I found that is amazing is called Athlean-X. it was made by Jeff Cavaliere and he also makes videos on YouTube with free workouts for people to watch. I think it’s great.

I have to say that I've used the P90X Extreme series and would recommend this product to anyone interested in it. Simply because it helps a person gain the muscle mass they want without getting overly bulky. I even recommend it to my clients.

If someone that thought they were in shape tried this they would be thinking twice after 10 minutes into any routine. LOL! 🙂 Great Product!